Significant job creation is being generated by the drive to harvest energy from the seas around Scotland.

As developers get closer to producing commercial-scale power from waves and tidal currents, their efforts are already benefiting coastal communities in the Highlands and Islands.

Orkney-based Scotrenewables has a 19-strong team involved in a range of renewables projects - including the development of a free-floating, twin-rotor tidal turbine for deployment in the waters around the islands.

Marine renewables pioneer Barry Johnston, who created the company six years ago, is currently looking for two more people to join a team he describes as "young, talented and fizzing with ideas".

His company, now one of the biggest employers in Stromness, has attracted international investment for its tidal power project from French oil giant Total and shipping magnate Fred Olsen.

Fred Olsen Renewables, one of a portfolio of international businesses owned by Mr Olsen's Norwegian family, is offering backing worth £6.2 million.

"It's the biggest single investment ever made in a Scottish tidal energy company," said Mr Johnston. "With this level of support, we are in a really strong position to make a success of our tidal energy device."

A fifth-scale version weighing two tonnes is under construction ready for testing this winter, with the first full-size prototype scheduled to undergo trials at the Orkney-based European Marine Energy Centre in 2010.

"The challenges are enormous," he said. "We are developing complex technology for a hostile environment - but we are all determined to make it work."

One challenge has been less of a problem than he expected.

"Based in a community some might regard as remote, I thought it might be difficult to attract staff. But the opposite is true and today, as well as employing 10 from Orkney itself, we have people from Germany, Ireland and France, as well as elsewhere in the UK."

He believes the chance to join a company at the cutting edge of marine energy development helps explain his success in building his workforce.

"I'm very fortunate to have a young team who share an innovative and open minded approach," Mr Johnston added. "As a result there's a really energetic vibe in the office, which make it a great place to work."

The European Marine Energy Centre is playing a key role in making wave and tidal energy a commercial reality.

EMEC operates two test sites, one for wave energy converters off Stromness, the other for tidal turbines off the island of Eday.

Devices under test have fed electricity into the National Grid from both the wave and tidal sites, which are the first facilities of their kind anywhere in the world.

The centre itself has nine full-time staff and is currently seeking another to join the team.

"Our job is to help make this new industry work," said managing director Neil Kermode.

"Our test sites give developers the opportunity to prove that their technologies can generate significant amounts of power, while coping with the challenging conditions these northern waters provide."

EMEC's own operations require a wide mix of skills: from electrical engineering to the promotion of marine renewables as an important source of clean, sustainable energy.

"It's great to see EMEC act as a catalyst for the creation of work in Orkney," Mr Kermode said. "Seven of the team are from the local community and two of us have moved to the islands to join the centre."

Ken Grant, area manager for HIE in Orkney, said that Orkney and the Highlands and Islands is playing a world-leading role in a vitally new energy sector. He said: "It's great that we have such a significant number of jobs being created around our coastal communities as developers get close to producing commercial scale power from the tides and waves.

"Harnessing the power of the sea will help us meet our targets, create new jobs and reduce carbon emissions. We are very proud that the European Marine Energy Centre is located in Orkney which is probably the best location in Europe for testing commercial scale devices."

And in Caithness Roy Kirk, area manager for HIE, said: "We are seeing very positive announcements from inward investors which would ultimately see more jobs being created here. We are very optimistic about the merging of the skills base with those from the offshore industry, the great location and the increasing demand around the world for energy generated from renewable resources."

Developers have called on the skills and services of other local businesses as well.  Ken Grant added: "They've hired tugs and other vessels. They've needed specialist support from divers, environmental consultants and other specialists. They've stayed in hotels and bed-and-breakfasts, and they've visited pubs and restaurants."

 "That will increase as this industry develops and more wave and tidal devices come on site for testing - to the benefit of our local economy."

After many years with Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Dr Rob Harris has moved to Orkney, attracted by a major research initiative designed to boost energy generation from the sea.

An internationally renowned expert on the impact of waves and tidal currents on offshore structures, Dr Harris has joined the MREDS (Marine Renewable Energy Development in Scotland) programme at the university's International Centre for Island Technology in Stromness.

He said: "Wave and tidal devices need to be deployed in some pretty demanding places – the sort of places, as engineers, we've always tried to avoid in the past.

"MREDS is all about overcoming barriers that could hinder the success of these technologies, which makes it a very exciting area of research.

"With the test facilities at EMEC, resourceful companies like Scotrenewables, and the opportunity through MREDS to build a substantial body of research, Orkney is well placed to become a major centre in the new marine renewables industry.

"For me, that made the move here a very attractive proposition."

Contact: Mairi Gillies
Phone: 01463 244235
Fax: 01463 244331
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Website: http://www.hie.co.uk

Source: http://www.allmediascotland.com

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